Chinese President Xi Jinping has reportedly praised the Communist Youth League (CYL) for defending the name of a war hero, an official news website under the league reported on Monday.
According to the report on news website youth.cn, Xi praised the league for fighting against "unhealthy tendencies" and "spreading positive energy."
The Communist Youth League had openly criticized online comments that attacked the validity of Qiu Shaoyun's story. Qiu had long been lauded by the Chinese government as a war hero who died in 1952 in the Korean War (1950-53). He reportedly stayed motionless in a fire to avoid revealing the position of hundreds of his fellow Chinese soldiers. He was burned to death.
However, an online celebrity, Sun Jie, also known as "Zuoyeben" on Sina Weibo, had deflated the official story around Qiu by mocking him as "roast meat" to his more than 6 million Weibo followers.
Qiu's family had demanded apology from those who mocked Qiu on the Internet.
